Main Navigation

Author: Peter Townsend

Muslims are fond of reminding us that they follow a book that are supposedly free from any contradictions. This is based on a statement made in the Qur’an itself: Do they not reflect upon the Qur’an? If it had been from [any] other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction. (Qur’an 4:82)

This is, of course, a highly questionable statement. Let us test this against what the Qur’an says about alcohol.

Most people are aware of the fact that Muslims are not supposed to drink any alcohol and, on the face of it, the case seems open and shut. Qur’an 5:90 says: O you who believe! Strong drink and games of chance and idols and divine arrows are only an infamy of Satan’s handiwork. Leave it aside that you may succeed.

But wait, that’s not all the Qur’an has to say on the topic. Qur’an 4:43 does not take believers to task for drinking but only say that they should not come to pray when they are drunk. The problem here is not drinking as such, only praying while intoxicated.

In chapter 16 of the Qur’an Allah reminds people of all the blessings that he bestows on humanity. He also lists: “And from the fruit of the date-palm and the vine, ye get out wholesome drink and food: behold, in this also is a sign for those who are wise.” (Qur’an 16:67) Note that this ‘drink’ is not grape juice. The Arabic word is ‘sakaran’ a version of the same word is used in 4:43 (sakura) to describe drunkenness. It can therefore be translated as ‘intoxicating drink’. So here the ‘handiwork’ of Satan is described as a blessing of Allah to humanity.

To confuse matters further Muslims are told they will drink wine (Satan’s handiwork remember!) in paradise (Qur’an 47:5, 83:22). Muslims are fond of piously stating that this wine will not have intoxicating effects, but this does not appear in the text itself.

This dilemma cannot be solved by the theological device of the ‘Law of Abrogation’ where a later revelation replaces an earlier one with ‘something better’ (Qur’an 2:106) as it deals with creation itself (‘Blessings from God’ vs. ‘Handiwork of Satan’). Are we supposed to believe that Allah went back to the moment of creation to ‘not make wine’ and have Satan do it in order to abrogate this verse?

One of the basic facts that most people know about Islam is that Muslims pray while facing Mecca. Muslims believe that this is mandated in the Qur’an where Allah instructs the faithful to pray in the direction of the ‘sacred mosque’ (cf. Qur’an 2:142-145, 149-150). Muslim commentators on this text are unanimous that this can only refer to the mosque (with the Ka’aba at its center) in Mecca that is still the focus of all Muslim prayer. Since this statement is in the Qur’an itself, and is dated to 624 CE by Muslim scholars, we can assume that all mosques built during the Islamic conquests would have had qiblas (prayer directions) pointing towards Mecca. The problem, from an Islamic perspective, is that this is simply not the case. Many ancient mosques have been excavated and the floor plans of the oldest among them do not align with an orientation towards Mecca. The map below shows just how widespread the ‘misalignment’ of all the earliest mosques that have been excavated are.

So what is going on here? At the very least we should consider the probability that early Islam had an alternative focus for devotion, much further to the north. This would inevitably mean that modern Muslims are misdirecting their prayers. Most people would dismiss such an idea as beyond preposterous but could I respectfully ask you to consider the evidence as laid out in my book ‘The Mecca Mystery – Probing the Black Hole at the Heart of Muslim History’ before finally making up your mind?

‘It surely looks nothing like what we’re used to around here’ Rudolph mused as he surveyed his beautiful new lawn shimmering in the early morning dew. This was magnificently confirmed in the piece the local paper did on just how much color and diversity his bold step brings to the gardens in the area.

Sure, there have been some ignorant dunces who pointed out that this species of Arabian Camel Grass is notorious for harboring deadly snakes. Some of the more persistent among them even quoted statistics showing how much the likelihood of someone dying a painful, writhing, poison-induced death increases with every extra meter of coverage.

It was beyond Rudolph how people can be so backward. His new lawn livened up the boring and predictable conformity of the neighbourhood with its otherness. ‘Besides’ he clinched the internal argument with the Neanderthal who pleaded with him not to go ahead ‘only a tiny percentage of Arabian Camel Grass lawns ever harbours the snakes’. Surely that’s a small price to pay for the way in which it enriches quiet suburban streets.

Rudolph is awakened from his thoughts by the reminder on his phone telling him that it is time to go to a meeting of the City Council where he and a few other enthusiasts will lobby the City Council to plant Camel Grass in their community’s Public Parks.

He got up quickly. As he did, an excruciating flash of pain shot up from his ankle towards his heart.

________________________________

Peter Townsend’s ‘Nothing to do with Islam?’ investigates some of the most important questions around the relationship between Islam and violence. Questions that are routinely ignored our wished away by our media and elites.

22 July 2018, Toronto: He showed clear signs of being a trained gunman. Meticulously picking out targets to mow down in one of Toronto’s most iconic neighbourhoods. Any government concerned with the safety and welfare of its people will immediately spring into action to ensure that horrific events like this is never repeated. Right? In modern Canada under Justin Trudeau not so much it seems.

Firstly it took more than a day to release the name of the attacker. Townsend’s law (which I just made up) states that there is a direct correlation between the length of time it takes to identify a perpetrator of a mass event and the likelihood that he/she will be a Muslim. How can it be otherwise? Politically Correct establishments needs time to get damage control measures in place.

So it proved. When the name, Faisal Hussein, was published the media machine immediately sprung into action. A slick press release was aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), purportedly coming from his parents. You guess what’s coming next. Faisal was mentally ill. Nothing to see here. Move right along.

Not so fast. Surely it is not uncharitable to wonder about the fact that the statement was available at exactly the same time that the name was released to the media. The CBC must therefore have had some influence over the process of releasing the name so that they could have a reassurance that it had ‘Nothing to do with Islam’ ready to go. We may also be entitled to ask why the statement supposedly coming from Faisal’s parents was actually crafted by Muhammad Hashim of the Muslim Brotherhood linked National Council of Canadian Muslims. Do bodies like these routinely get information directly impacting on public safety before the general populace in Modern Canada? And then we have not even looked at the fact that Hussein was clearly trained in the execution of a mass attack and reportedly present on several terror watch lists.

All of these things can seemingly be waved away. He was just ‘ill’ you see. Apparently he’s not alone. In the past few years the ‘mental illness’ trope has been used to explain away more than 20 Islamic terror attacks in the West. There are few things that should make our blood boil like this egregious insult to our intelligence.

For the moment just two things in response:
1) The lives of people with mental illnesses are hard enough without having to live with the slur that they are prone to go on mass killing sprees at the drop of a hat. Trying to shift the blame from Islam to those in our communities living with mental health challenges is despicable. In a world with its priorities straight, charities and NGO’s serving people with mental illness would raise hell about those pinning yet more stigma on their clients in order to cover for Islam. Hopefully we will see more of this happening.

2) This brings me to the second point. Even if we believe the ‘he’s mentally ill’ line, which I do not in this case, we still have to account for the fact that the overwhelming majority of the supposedly ‘mentally ill’ people who do this kind of thing share a common denominator: Adherence to Islam and the desire to be obedient to Qur’anic teaching on the treatment of unbelievers. So perhaps it is time that we label this ‘illness’ for what it is: ‘Sudden Jihad Syndrome’. A ‘disease’ that cannot be divorced in any way from the fact that Islam teaches warfare against non-Muslims.

Those who died and were injured, and their loved ones, deserve better than this shameful attempt to obfuscate and explain away the real cause of their suffering. Stand with me, therefore, in forcefully challenging the ‘mentally ill’ canard whenever you come across it!

For more on how Islamic teaching lies behind attacks like the one perpetrated by Hussein see my book ‘Nothing to do with Islam – Investigating the West’s Most Dangerous Blind Spot’